I critiqued my friend’s future career plans. Did I have the right to do so?
Written by Matti V.
My friend expressed her plans for the future, saying she'd get a lucrative degree in an oil company and work for as few years as possible in order to enjoy her retirement life. In response, I criticized her approach, saying that it's better to pursue a noble career that you are passionate about and make little money. Did I have the right to criticize her? Whose approach is more valid? Is it more virtuous to pursue a noble career and make little money, or pursue a lucrative career that harms society but donate a large portion of your income to charity?
Choosing a career is one of the most difficult and personal decisions anyone will have to make in their lifetime. It’s valid for you and your friend to come to conflicting viewpoints. To evaluate which approach is the most virtuous, it is important to understand the individual and societal impacts each career choice will have. To do that, we must first define what a noble career is. A noble career is a career that puts the interests of others above one's own financial motivations. However, you should also understand that choosing nobility just for nobility’s sake can also be selfish — for instance, if you are only doing so to maintain a positive public image. It can always be argued there is a more noble choice when choosing a career path.
In pursuing a lucrative career at an oil company, we can reasonably assume that your friend’s work will contribute to carbon emissions and harm the environment. Not only will their actions harm society as a whole, but they will disproportionately impact marginalized people. They could decide to donate a large portion of their income to charity, as you mentioned, but in order for this to be truly virtuous, the money must fully compensate for the damage done to society or even surpass it. Even if society is not being harmed, if your friend’s donation does not surpass the damage they have done, the only person benefiting is themselves. In this scenario, your friend would be putting their own self interest above others, which is not virtuous. Additionally, they must ensure the charities they donate to are helping the same people who are negatively affected by the oil company. Equally, if a person does not have the consent of the people they are harming, they cannot compensate for their actions and argue it is justified. In this case, the environment cannot give them its consent. Assuming your friend is pursuing the career for financial reasons alone, the portion of their salary they keep after donating may mean the downsides of the career are not even worth the money.
In choosing a noble career, you can both pursue your passion and be confident that your work is benefiting society. In addition, people with noble careers can have more genuine and mutually beneficial relationships with those they serve if they do not seek to profit from them. Those who have a noble career while making little money are often underappreciated. But this reflects the generosity of their decision, as they do not have high material or social expectations for their contributions, and instead find value in making a positive difference.
Everyone should have the right to choose their career, and you can question your friend's decision, while respecting the professional autonomy you both have. Although neither decision is necessarily wrong, and I may not know all of your friend’s motivations, pursuing a noble career you are passionate about is more beneficial to society as a whole. A person’s career choice should reflect their individual values, as it will shape how they interact with society. When you reflect on your career, your career should reflect you.
